There are a lot of reasons why we go out to eat. Sometimes, it’s sheer lethargy that drives us to hunch over a bowl of ramen rather than cooking for ourselves. Other times, we’re looking to discover unfamiliar cuisines, or escape our regular lives and gather with friends. And sometimes, we just want to be entertained.

Throughout history, that last part has been a hallmark of some of the most extravagant dining experiences. From the Tudor-era cockentrice—a Frankensteined beast delivered to the table by a small army of men—to classic hallmarks of French service like Dover sole filleted at your table, bringing the action out of the kitchen and into the dining room has been a way to coax a bit of drama out of the act of communal eating.

Sadly, tableside service was on the verge of extinction for a while in NYC, relegated to kitschy mortar-and-pestle guacamole antics and fusty old brassieres that refused to bend to the times. But more recently, there’s been a resurgence in dining-room flair. Restaurants like Carbone and Porter House are reviving old traditions like à la minute Caesar salad and canard à la presse, while the revamped Eleven Madison Park has fully blurred the line between dinner and theater. And then, of course, there are bong-smoked oysters in the East Village—because why not?

Here, we take a tour of some of our favorite tableside preparations in New York—from old standards like bananas Foster and crêpes Suzette, to a nouveau twist on lobster fra diavolo—with some GIFs to show you exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

Canard à la presse at Porter House

Address and phone: 10 Columbus Circle, 4th fl (212-823-9500)
Website:porterhousenewyork.comPrice: $120 (serves two; must order at least 48 hours in advance)
Good for: People who read Escoffier cookbooks for fun
Chef Michael Lomonaco first served this haute-cuisine classic back in the '90s at the '21' Club, but he only added it to the menu this past fall at Porter House after finding a traditional French duck carcass press and rolling carving table. The multi-step preparation begins two days in advance, when the duck is marinated in herbs and aromatics. It's roasted just prior to service and carved in the kitchen; the key is to retain all of the bones, which are chopped up roughly and brought to the table along with the meat. That's when the real magic happens: The roasted duck carcass is placed in the bronze press, where it's crushed to squeeze out all of the flavor-packed blood and marrow lurking inside the bones. Everything that comes out is added to a rich sauce of port and foie gras, which is poured generously over the duck that's sliced in front of guests. Lomonaco loves the process so much that, as long as he's available, he personally comes to each table to help with preparation.—Chris Schonberger

Maine Lobster Diavolo-Vodka at Quality Italian

Address and phone: 57 W 57th St (212-390-1111)
Website:qualityitalian.comPrice: $41
Good for: Fun-loving red-sauce enthusiasts with cash to burn
There are no American lobsters in Italy, and a heavy tomato sauce with hot peppers, seafood, and pasta all in one dish is not Italian cooking in the slightest. Yet this decidedly Italian-American lobster presentation is a beautiful one, and it's just one example of the Quality Italian's penchant for flair (there's also a colossal $58 chicken parm, “carved” tableside with a pizza cutter). For the diavolo, a one-and-a-quarter-pound Maine lobster is first cooked in a spicy garlic-pepper-tomato sauce before the server finishes the crustacean at your table by flambéing it with Calabrian chili-infused vodka. The gorgeous, fiery red result is plated and served with a side of garlic toast to soak up all that sauce.—Erin Mosbaugh

Crêpes Suzette at Benoit

Address and phone: 60 W 55th St (646-943-7373)
Website:benoitny.comPrice: $14 (Sunday brunch)
Good for: Francophiles looking for a taste of the old school
While there's nothing particularly French about going for Sunday brunch (at least before the Brooklynization of Paris began), the rest of Alain Ducasse’s casual brasserie hits all the right notes for card-carrying Francophiles. Down in the Meatpacking District, your Sunday pancakes might come with girls in bikinis and champagne bottles outfitted with sparklers. Here in midtown, it's a more refined affair. Fresh crêpes are brought to the table by vest-clad waiters, who toss them in a warm pan with a slug of Grand Marnier for a fiery flourish. They are then basted in the caramelized Suzette butter—which also features orange skins, sugar, and lemon juice—and served with vanilla ice-cream and orange granité. Even brunch haters are bound to enjoy the show.—Chris Schonberger

Bong-Smoked Oysters at Desnuda

Address and phone: 122 E 7th St (212) 254-3515
Website:desnudany.comPrice: 4 oysters for $18
Good for: Stoners with a soft spot for bivalves
This East Village wine bar and cevicheria doesn’t simply serve oysters on the half shell like every other restaurant around town. Instead, chef-owner Peter Gevrekis smokes his bivalves with a gravity bong (paging Action Bronson). The ritualistic process begins with Gevrekis shucking the oysters into tiny glass cup. He then takes the gravity bong and packs it with lapsang souchong tea and Sichuan peppercorns. He lights the bowl with a small torch and pushes down on the bottle, producing water pressure that forces out air and creates billows of smoke. Gevrekis then traps the aromatic smoke with a glass orb, which he uses to cover the oysters.
“Being that the oyster is a porous creature, it absorbs the smoke in less than two minutes. We tell the customer to wait two minutes, lift the orb, smell the smoke, squeeze a tiny bit of lemon, eat the oyster, and enjoy,” says Gevrekis. This tableside presentation provides an entertaining show (probably even better if you're legit high), but in this case there’s also a practical reason: last-minute flavor infusion.—Erin Mosbaugh

Tea service at Betony

Address and phone: 41 W 57th St (212-465-2400)
Website:betony-nyc.comPrice: $15
Good for: Tea drinkers who are tired of coffee fiends having all the fun with their tableside Chemexes
If you've ever been to a Japanese tea house like Cha-An in the East Village, you know that drinking tea can be a lot more exciting than tossing a bag of Earl Gray into a paper cup. At Betony, the elegant tea service takes cues from ancient Tibetan and Japanese traditions to give guests an opportunity to appreciate the nuances in varieties that you won't find in the office kitchenette. The process is designed to show how the tea develops through various steepings. Servers bring out a table and set up their tools, offering the dry tea for guests to smell, touch, and even taste. Boiling water is first used to warm the leaves, allowing them to breath and open up. The moistened leaves are then used for a progression of steepings, ranging from 12 to about 20 seconds, that each highlight a different aspect of the tea. The whole experience is eye-opening, fun, and a lot tastier than the Constant Comment chamomile you're used to picking out of a box at the end of a meal.—Chris Schonberger

Bananas Foster at Italianissimo Ristorante

Address and phone: 307 E 84th St (212-628-8603)
Website:italianissimony.netPrice: $16
Good for: Fans of boozy desserts
This ever-popular American dessert was created at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans in 1951. Of course, an Italian chef at a restaurant on the Upper East Side is creating his own version of the classic, swapping the traditional dark rum with Nocello walnut liqueur. Chef Luigi Campoverde prepares the whole shebang tableside, starting by caramelizing sugar in a copper pan. He then tosses in the bananas and a knob of butter, let’s the bananas brown, and pours in a shot of banana liqueur and Nocello, producing a satisfying burst of flames in the pan. Once the flames settle, Campoverde squeezes a half of an orange into the pan, then scoops the bananas onto vanilla ice cream. Finally, he lets the buttery caramel sauce thicken, pours it over the ice cream and bananas, and...scene. This show-stopping dessert isn’t listed on the menu, but Italianissimo’s regulars order it on every visit.—Erin Mosbaugh

Vintage wine service at Eleven Madison Park

Address and phone: 11 Madison Ave (212-889-0905)
Website:elevenmadisonpark.comPrice: Varies
Good for: High-rollers looking for a little theater with their wine
Over the past few years, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara have been leading forces in bringing some high drama back to the world of fine dining in NYC. At the Nomad, dessert trolleys cruise through the dining room, and there's even a rolling cocktail cart that travels from table to table. And at Eleven Madison Park, marathon meals lasting more than four hours feature a series of tableside flourishes that blur the line between dinner and theater: Ducks are carved in front of you; carrots get forced through a meat grinder for a playful riff on steak tartare; and fish is presented in a bell jar full of smoke.
One particularly cool element that hasn't gotten as much press is master sommelier Dustin Wilson's wine service, which includes a jaw-dropping way of opening vintage bottles (usually ports and red wines over 25 years old, though they'll do it for any bottle if guests are interested). Using heated port tongs, the neck of the bottle is removed, bank-robber style, to avoid age-damaged corks that are difficult to remove with a traditional wine key. Afterward, you're sent home with the bottle and the broken top piece—both sealed tableside with wax—so that you'll have something to remind you of the show.—Chris Schonberger

Salt-baked fish at Cull & Pistol

Address and phone: 75 9th Ave (646-568-1223)
Website:cullandpistol.comPrice: $26 (lunch and dinner)
Good for: Pescatarians who have seen enough waiters in vests filleting Dover sole
At Cull & Pistol, a sleek new fish restaurant inside Chelsea Market, the theatrical staging hits you right at the entrance, where you're greeted with a luxe display of oysters, lobsters, and other raw-bar delicacies resting on ice. The showmanship continues at the table when you order the salt-baked fish: a whole market fish (usually Dorade) baked in a dense, Kosher-salt cask that is cracked open right in front of diners, releasing plumes of thyme-and lemon-scented steam. It's a simple bit of flair—the fish is not filleted table side, like a traditional Dover sole—but the dramatic unveiling accentuates the experience twofold: It offers a glimpse of the old-fashioned process behind the dish, and it traps in all the juiciness of the olive oil and garlic-licked fish until the very last moment. Snap the requisite Instagrams, then slide the flesh right off the bone.—Chris Schonberger

OG 1924 Hotel Caesar Salad at American Cut

Address and phone: 363 Greenwich St (212-226-4736)
Website:americancutsteakhouse.comPrice: $14
Good for: Salad fanatics with a thing for celebrity chefs
At his new Tribeca steakhouse, Marc Forgione does justice to the all-too-often ill-prepared Caesar salad. Forgione’s prparation is inspired by the original version of the dish, created in Tijuana, Mexico in 1924 by the Italian immigrant Cardini at Hotel Caesar. Order the "OG" salad, and a waiter will approach the table with a wooden bowl filled with whole romaine leaves, shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, a soft-boiled egg, a giant Pullman crouton, and garlicky dressing. Quite dramatically, he will chop the ingredients using a rocker knife, making a satisfying crunching that puts Chop't to shame. Then, he will toss the salad with a wooden spoon to evenly distribute all of the cream and crunchy elements—just as Cardini did almost a century ago. For another new restaurant bringing back the art of the Caesar, head to Carbone, where even the dressing is prepared tableside by waiters in maroon tuxedos, and the whole song and dance takes several minutes.—Erin Mosbaugh

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